Phalacrus substriatus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Pill beetle or ally |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Phalacrus substriatus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Gyllenhal, 1813 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Lane, 2021 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Near Threatened. There are 10 or possibly 11 modern locations, and confidence in the threat assessment is low due to the small number of recent records. It is unclear how many of these records are from England. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Declines suggest that general habitat management is not effective for conservation of this species, and there is a lack of understanding about species ecology to suggest better alternatives |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | In modern times apparently restricted to upland and montane moorland habitat where the larvae are thought to feed on smutted inflorescences of glaucous sedge Carex flacca. Adults have been associated with the flowers of bog asphodel Narthecium ossifragum. In Sweden adults feed on overwintering teliospores and germinating basidiospores of smut fungi of the genus Anthracoidea (Ustilaginales) and on Carex pollen. Larvae feed in the developing smut sori. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Autecological research to better characterise habitat requirements and inform management, using standardised methodology to establish baseline for national monitoring programme
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Unknown
Comments: Vegetation and microhabitat preferences should be quantified, including any management regimes at sites where the species occurs.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Resurvey historic sites without recent records
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Unknown
Comments: Site selection will have to be based on a desk-study if data are not available from a recording scheme
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Ensure appropriate habitat management is implemented at all occupied sites. This should be based on the results of Actions 1 and 2, and may include determining appropriate grazing or cutting regimes, and scrub clearance
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Unknown
Comments: Site prioritisation will be based on the results of Actions 1 and 2
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.